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I am not an investigative journalist. I am a rabbi. And staying
in my home – fast asleep, thankfully, at 6 in the morning – are a mother and her three children (one
part-time at a nursery, one in a primary school and one who started secondary
school last month). They are members of my congregation. She fled her marital
home at the end of July and found safety in a refuge. It was some distance from
her children’s schools (three different locations). She and they have spent
hours and hours in the last six weeks using public transport (most of the time
without even having the benefit of subsidised travel because there was a
‘problem’ issuing bus passes).

The refuge in which they had lived for twelve weeks closed
last week. She and her children were promised a place in another refuge. She
was told to pack her belongings, which would be transported to the new refuge,
taking just enough for two days and nights, after which she and her children
would be moved into the new refuge.

This is the second of those nights that these four displaced
souls were told to ‘find someone to stay with’. Yesterday she was advised that
the new refuge would not be available as promised, and that there was an ‘80%
chance’ that it would be ready for her and her children in three days’ time. So
they’re in my house now, and will be for another three nights. With only a
small percentage of their few possessions – she doesn’t even know where the
rest of her belongings are right now.

Like I said, I am a rabbi. I am responding to the prophet
Isaiah’s injunction to ‘share your food with the
hungry, and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter;
when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own
flesh and blood.’ (Isaiah 58:7) It is someone else’s job to look into how and
why this happened, to find out the roles of Hightown Housing Association, Safer
Places and Hertfordshire County Council in this human tragedy. Maybe that job
starts here.
This newspaper article, from July 2017, includes this: “Hightown is committed to working closely with
SAHWR, Herts county council, and Safer Places to ensure a smooth transition
over the coming months and is prepared to be flexible regarding the final
date.”

If that is the case,
why are four residents of that refuge now in my house, with eighty per cent of
their possessions in an unknown location, and facing an uncertain future? Now
there’s something for an investigative journalist to look into…